A Child's Last Breath (Documentary of Kara David)

Episode on August 24, 2009 Monday night, after Saksi Tuberculosis or TB has long been considered a curable disease by the international medical community. However, a recent study showed that in our country, 75 Filipinos still die of TB everyday. In Metro Manila, TB medicines are already given for free in almost all government clinics and hospitals. Despite the free meds, the rate of infection is still increasing, especially among children. Award-winning journalist Kara David visits a family in Quezon City whose members are all infected with TB. Mang Danny’s four children has pediatric TB -- Sam (10 months old), Sander (3 y/o), Samson (5 y/o) and Sonny (10 y/o) are all too weak and skinny to even walk for a few steps. Kara brings the whole family to a nearby hospital and discovers that the parents are also positive of TB. According to the doctor, they were the ones who infected their kids. Meanwhile in Caloocan, Kara meets Edelyn, a 14-year old TB patient who acts as a parent to her three siblings despite her illness. Edelyn’s father died many years ago while her mother works as a helper and would only visit them once a month. Everyday, Edelyn goes to the health center to get her free medicine. Her only wish now is that she doesn’t infect her brothers and sisters. In these dangerous situations, how do you separate the infected parents from their kids if they are the family’s main provider? Kara David documents the plight of these two families as they struggle to survive the contagious lung disease in her documentary “A Child's Last Breath" airing this Monday midnight over GMA-7.